Muriel Hurtis Jewelry

Photographing jewelry is an important skill for jewelry artists. Although there are many challenges involved in jewelry photography, you can easily get some really professional looking photos using good scanners or digital cameras.

To sell your jewelry online – from your website, eBay or other online auctions, or web stores – you’ll need to post good, clear pictures of your work. You’ll also need good jewelry photos for your business card and any flyers, brochures, or other marketing pieces you make. In online business pictures represent your product.

Photographing Jewelry with a Scanner

Use a scanner for photographing jewelry, it’s really a great and simple tool for quickly getting beautiful, artistic shots. You don’t need to be a camera buff to get good results with scanners. Basically two-dimensional jewelry is easy to shoot this way. You can get wonderful photos of earrings, necklaces, and other pieces that can be laid flat on the scanner glass.

For most pieces, you can easily work within the capabilities of scanners and get professional looking jewelry photos. It’s hard to shoot three-dimensional pieces.

With a scanner, you can’t easily get good pictures of things that don’t show to their best advantage when lying flat. “Standing up” shots of rings and cuff bracelets are nearly impossible to photograph with a scanner. You’ll get a much better shot of these using a digital camera.

There are some simple techniques used by the professional to obtain dramatic results with minimal effort. The following examples show the basic setup that should allow anyone to achieve results they can be proud of.

1. The keys to good jewelry photography are sharpness, lighting, exposure, and in the case of gemstone photography, trying to create some sparkle.
2. Good jewelry photography needs sharp, crisp focus.
3. Another key to good jewelry photography is the lighting.
4. Proper exposure is also key to good jewelry photography.